King George’s Field, Ham, Sunday 4 June 2023.

St Anne’s Allstars 158-6 (31.5 overs: Nick Knight 40, Sheahan Arnott 30*) beat Superstars 156-9 (35 overs: Shanmugam Sama 3-23, Amit Deverathippa 2-11, Pradesh Deveraj 2-23) by 4 wickets.

Allstars debut: Pradesh Deveraj.

Report by Pete Cresswell – Photos by Pete Cresswell and Barathwaj Nagarajan

Our first victory of 2023! On a lovely sunny June Sunday, the Allstars convened at the picturesque King George’s Field in Ham, Richmond to take on the Superstars.

A pitch inspection soon revealed that while the pitch had been rolled, said rolling perhaps should have waited for the pitch to dry a little – one of the marked strips “featured” a large depression on middle stump, just short of a good length. So accordingly we set up on the other one. With Superstars only able to field 9 men, we were able to loan them Nic Knight’s nephew Gabriel Canela.

The Superstars’ stand-in captain Jason Marchant called incorrectly, and skipper Cresswell immediately invited the Superstars to have first “experience” of the pitch.

The Superstars’ opener Diego D’Souza looked handy, helping himself to 10 off Sheahan Arnott’s opening over, despite some variable bounce. Pradesh Deveraj took the new ball on his Allstars debut at the other end, showing commendable line and length and good pace. He was very unlucky to concede 5 no-balls in his second over as a ball took off off a length, clearing the batter and our tall keeper Matt Biss and hitting the fielding helmet placed behind him.

The Superstars batters were very willing to attack, reasoning that they’d be getting a ball with their name on it soon enough. The opening stand realised 33 off 27 balls before George Warren skied a drive to Raghavendra who took a good catch at mid-off for Pradesh’s first Allstars’ wicket. Hoggins joined D’Souza who continued blazing away until Shanmugam Sama replaced Pradesh at the tennis court end and had him caught behind for 45 off 33 in a superb wicket-maiden first over. Still, at 71/2 off 12 overs Cresswell was fearing he’d gone a bit “Nasser Hussain” at the toss, a feeling reinforced as Superstars’ numbers 3 and 4 safely took the score to three figures at drinks, despite giving a couple of tough chances.

After drinks the combination of slow (Nic Knight) and fast (Amit Deverathippa) slowed the scoring rate, before Amit broke the 51-run stand getting one to pop on Hoggins, providing a straightforward catch for Matt behind the stumps. Aaron Harris was bowled by a shooter next ball to put Amit on a hat-trick and put us into the lower order.

The returning Raga struck first ball, trapping Gary Plahe LBW to another shooter for 136/5, while Amit responded to a running mix-up to coolly throw the stumps down from short 3rd man to account for Marchant. Shanmugam then capped off an excellent spell with two wickets in his final over, first bowling Sam for a well crafted 42 and then Konrad Chodzko-Zajko (“K Cz”) second ball.

The Superstars tail were then restricted to just 10 runs off the final 5 overs, a spell notable firstly for Pradesh’s second wicket to cap an excellent debut, and for our loanee Gabriel’s first ever run, and a red-inker for him. This was a pleasing fielding effort, with some good catches taken, only a couple of tough chances missed, and no overthrows.

After tea, Pete and Amit walked to the wicket to open our reply. Superstars found some early swing and variable bounce to upset both openers’ stumps and reduce us to 11/2 off 5. We needed a steadying partnership, and Barathwaj Nagarajan and Nic Knight provided it, navigating the next 10 overs and adding 45 before Barathwaj nicked off to Sam. Benaka Karanth joined Nic, dispatching a couple of full-tosses to the fence on the way through to drinks.

Straight after drinks, Benaka was unlucky to play back to a shooter that trapped him in front of middle. We then quickly lost Nic, caught at cover for a stylish 40, and Iain Wilson who retired hurt with a groin stain. However that brought Matt Biss and Raghavendra together, with Raga hitting 3 boundaries in his 13 before being bowled by Duggan to leave us 115/6 – but with Sheahan next in, we still had a bit of batting left, and 11 overs to get 42 more runs. Matt and Sheahan made relatively easy work of the remaining chase, despite a few more tricks from the pitch. Sheahan playing a “periscope pull” for 4 off one lifter from Diego, and taking one to the head from a length ball from the same bowler. Thankfully he sustained no lasting damage – but he’ll remember to wear a helmet next time.

An excellent victory against sporting opponents whom we seem to have a real affinity with. The ‘Stars Derby should have many years ahead of it – but next weekend, we have a big one to look forward to as we face Sir Tim Rice’s Heartaches at beautiful Aston Rowant.